Optical transmission properties of silica make it the material of choice for infrared fiber-optic communication systems. Reflective properties of gold in the infrared make it the metal of choice for making a mirror with low polarization sensitivity. Unfortunately, gold does not adhere well to silica, so if a gold mirror is needed on a silica surface, such as an end of a silica fiber or a waveguide, then an adhesion-promoting layer must be applied before the gold is deposited. One commonly employed approach utilizes consecutive depositions of layers of titanium and platinum on the silica surface before applying the gold. These layers are, however, optically opaque due to their thicknesses needed to produce sufficient gold adhesion promotion, which are typically on the order of 100-200 nanometers (nm).